Posted by marvin from l316t1p27.netway.at (195.96.17.155)on March 23, 1998 at 12:12:21:
Ok, I have uploaded the Croc driver to the developer section
as croc.zip, as suggested. Two files are included, a readme.txt
(which is the following text) and a file called glide2x.voo.
There is even a positive UPDATE compared to my early-morning
posting: at my recklessly extended lunch break at home, I finally
tracked down the most annoying 'error', which led to real crashes
of the game - it simply were calls to grLfbLock()!
Since RRedline fortunately offers direct buffer reads/writes with
quite the same interface, I succeeded in implementing the
grLfbLock() and grLfbUnlock() pair in the wrapper....
Now the wrapper does Linear Frame Buffer reads'n'writes too.
Voila, this will hopefully never bring Croc to a crash again.
So far, all video sequences now seem to work a little bit slow
(is Voodoo faster at this????), but nevertheless without any flaw.
The next thing I will try to fix are the textures....
Now, here's the readme:
BigRedCroc - Croc-RRedline driver Version 0.1/19980323
Installation:
--------------------------
Install Croc just normally. If you are 'lucky' to have only a
Rendition card, you will only be able to select
software rendering from the driver list. Select software
rendering. Watch how software rendering looks like (I still
admire these guys who successfully write software renderer!
It is a high art of programming and optimization).
Exit the game...
Look into the installation directory: here there will be
at least two glide files, namely glide2x.rsh and glide2x.voo.
Explanation: if you select Glide 3dfx Rush in the setup,
glide2x.rsh will be copied to glide2x.dll, and if you
select 3dfx Voodoo, then glide2x.voo will be copied to
glide2x.dll.
So, the only things we have to do are:
o) Backup the original glide2x.voo
o) Copy the new glide2x.voo into the game directory, overwriting the
original one.
o) Start the game again (e.g. via autorun). Enter the card
setup (second button on the autorun startup-screen). Now you
should be able to select Glide 3dfx Voodoo from the list
(second item).
o) Select a screen resolution of 640x480.
o) Set lighting quality to medium (can be changed later in the game)
o) Choose filtering if you like (can be changed later in the game)
o) Choose ok.
o) That's all. Press 'Play Croc' and enjoy (hopefully).
Currently known bugs, limitations:
--------------------------------------------
o) Most annoying is a tendency to trashed textures (some texture
don't display correctly) the longer you play. I am currently
working on this, it must be a simple problem, however I haven't
found it yet.
o) Some alphablending and chromkeying problems still exist.
This may be seen in slight visual errors (e.g. wrong colored
shadows on the ground...) and at some points as missing
transparency (e.g. the cages). I hope to fix this soon...
(I can assure you that transparency is not really the problem)
o) A simple blit (LfbWriteRegion) is not yet supported, so the
STATIC intro-screen is not visible - will be added very soon.
o) There is a strange effect at polygon boundaries visible
(can't describe it, a type of sawtooth-like flickering).
I have no idea about this... So, please help!
o) Performance: surely not stunning, but there are some ideas
for tuning... Moreover, I hope to get other inputs, when
discussing the current implementation with Jeff C, Chris, etc...
I am very interested in a fair comparison, how much slower
the RRedline version is compared to a Voodooo....
o) Limitations: The driver has only been tested on my machine,
an ordinary P133 with a Thriller 8MB card, under Win95A.
Tests have only be conducted in the above described game
settings (640x480,medium lighting), changes to these
parameters should work, but I can't guarantee for
anything....
Disclaimer:
<* Of course, I disclaim all and everything, now and forever *>
Have fun!
marvin